Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Like many young men of the day, Norman joined the South Wales Territorials and served in it for 7 years. It was Norman and Robert who emigrated to Australia in 1912 and married there. In 1913, Norman, then 23 and his younger brother Robert, decided to seek a new life and emigrated to Australia. They left Tilbury, London on the Tyser line ship S.S.Indrapura on the 14th of October 1913 disembarking at Melbourne. Norman settled at Nhill in Victoria and was on the Electoral Roll for the town in 1914. In February of 1915 he married Isabel Matheson in Nhill but tragically she died in childbirth with their child.
A year later, Norman answered the call to arms and joined the newly formed 38th Battalion of the Australian Infantry Force at Bendigo in Victoria. After training, the battalion left Melbourne on the 20th of June 1916 bound for England. They stopped off at Capetown after three weeks at sea and spent five days there with much leave being taken. The battalion finally arrived at Devonport on the 10th of August. After training on Salisbury plain the Division was considered fit for service and was sent to France on the 22nd of November 1916. The 38th Battalion entered the trenches at Armentieres on the 1st December 1916 where it experienced its first taste of trench warfare. It subsequently took part in many of the fierce battles that still resonate today - Messines, Ypres and Passchendaele. Norman Allbutt took part in all of those battles. After the war was over, the official history of the 38th Battalion of the AIF was written by Eric Fairey who was a private in the same battalion. Norman purchased a copy of the book which remained with his family and is the source of the information above. That book describes in great detail the participation of the 38th Battalion in the battles and the harshness of life in the trenches .
Norman Allbutt was promoted to Lance Corporal on the 17th of June 1918. (This fact was not recognised on the Llangattock Roll of Honour. He was not alone in this respect particularly for those promoted in the field of battle). He was granted leave from the 1st to the 21st September 1918 when he returned to Wales and married Elizabeth Powell of Llangattock. He then returned to his battalion for, ironically, the 38th Battalion’s last action in France at the Hindenburg line. He was gassed at the outset of the battle, taken to a field ambulance centre and then to Rouen where with other casualties he was transported back to England. He spent a month in hospital in Manchester and then was posted to a Company Depot in Weymouth where he served until the 13th of September 1919 at which time, he was demobbed.
After war service, Norman resumed civilian life and worked as a gardener as the open air life was probably better for his health after being gassed. Norman and Elizabeth lived at Sunnbank on the Ffawyddog where two children, Norman Francis Allbutt born in 1919 and named after his father and Phillip Allbutt, born in 1921, were raised. A third son, Robert was born in 1920 but only lived for one day. Norman (jnr) and Phillip were destined never to remember their father who died an early death in 1921 at the age of 32, a death undoubtedly hastened by his exposure to gas shelling while in the trenches in France.